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The Peoples
There are many races of people across Thele. Firbolgs A firbolg is a rare, and oft dreaded sight. They are a mythologised people who stick to the forests and wildlands of Thele where they tend to the wildlife present. There is no more unique sight than a firbolg in a urban centre in Thele, there are many sayings centred around it, but from time to time they do choose the lifestyle if it appeals to them...but these individuals are largely shunned from firbolg society from that point forward. Many areas of civic growth spread fear of firbolgs who attack those who attempt to harm their local wildlife and portray them as unthinking monsters. Others simply say their appearance is bad luck. Firbolgs are tall, skinny beings that stand between seven and eight feet tall with flat faces, long limbs and mossy, grassy fur. Male firbolgs have two goat-like horns and females have a single unicorn-like horn. Legends say that firbolgs are not born but simply grow like trees from the ground when they are needed, but this is not true and firbolgs are just incredibly secretive and protective of their young. No one is really sure what the average lifespan of a firbolg is, but it is long. Sadly, often if a firbolg's bonded area is destroyed or damaged the firbolg will simply give up on living. Firbolgs can be found all over Thele but are much rarer in Hilvik due to the Blightcurse and the permanent damage it caused to the eco-system. Gnomes The diminutive gnomes are a prideful and competitive people whose culture is inextricably intertwined with magic. They hold the dominant kingdoms in Amarlus and influence culture all Thele over with their constant drive to be better than everyone else and each other. A single gnome can become fanatical over a simple skill and devote their long life (some of the longest in all of Thele, upwards of 400 years) to becoming the best or most knowledgeable in this one thing. Even the tallest gnomes hardly scrape three feet tall. They usually have bulbous noses and large, tufted ears. A gnomes aesthetics are usually defined by their hair, with male gnomes growing long and ornate beards and females doing the same with with their locks. Gnomes in built up areas can often afford to grow these to be floor length but adventuring gnomes do not participate in this practice on average, simply due to upkeep and pragmatism. Gnomes hail from Amarlus but can be found all over Thele these days, more often clumped in areas with high arcane potential. Goblins Goblin is an umbrella term for a race of beings who share a childhood state but mature into different roles to fill parts of their societal structure. There are three types of roles in the goblin race, but they share many general features. Goblins come from Hilvik and live in matriarchal tribes in their naturally forming groups, forming around Queens. A goblin matures into adulthood in their early teens and can live on average up to 80 or so years. They are a very misunderstood people generally with many more civilised areas viewing their traditional ways as barbaric, especially their eating habits. Bogs Bogs are the smallest form of goblin standing between three and four feet tall, and they normally perform hunting and gathering duties for the tribe. They have large pointed noses and ears and they are typically hairless. Buckawns Buckawns closely resemble humans, with redder skin and prominent facial and body fur, so much so they are often mistaken from them at a distance. Buckawns are the warriors of the tribe and are mostly designed to protect against other goblin tribes. Bugbears The largest goblin type is also the hairiest, a bugbear is covered in long fur and stand at roughly seven feet tall. Bugbears have an uncanny ability to move silently and a gift for sight, making them perfect scouts and ambushers. Hobs No one is entirely sure if the Hobs share a common blood but their fraternity and common temperaments seem to indicate they do. Hobs have founded no major cities and no collective culture and are mostly seen as vagabonds and rogues in many of the civic centres. There is a constant debate about what form of a Hob's body is their true form, which shows a general distrust to this aspect of their lives. Hobs stand generally between 4 and 5 feet tall but can be shorter or taller depending on their heritage. In common terms Hobs appear to be bipedal mammals, birds, and aquatic creatures with shared traits of other mortal races. There are many types of unique hobs, and interbreeding of these types can cause hybridisation. All hobs can switch effortlessly between this bipedal humanoid form and a form more akin to the normal animals of their heritage. Hobs reach maturity in their early twenties and can live up to one hundred and fifty years old. Humans No one perseveres like a human, and no one has quite endured like the human bloodline. Humans hail from the very northern reaches of the world and settled there even before the bonds had been sealed, exposing their race to the chaos beneath the world and introducing a mutated form of the kin to the world in the process, the skrat. They were battered by the elements and gods beyond the view of any other race but survived, only to be cursed by the gods with another bloodline curse, one that gave right to the blighters. The average humans stands between five and six feet tall, mature in their mid to late teens and live somewhere close to eighty years. Blighters Blighters are humans with elementally infused blood, whose curse manifests physically on their bodies. How this manifests depends on the element that manifests and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to any manifestation. Out of the two human mutations Blighters are the more unacceptable, as reminders of the curse of the gods, but they face very little actual prejudice. Skrats Skrats are chaos infused humans whose bloodline manifests physically as strange mutations, common are tails and horns but can extend to goat-like legs, vestigial wings, or reptilian eyes. Knuckers If one word could describe the knucker it is individualistic. They have no cities or cultures, no society to speak of whatsoever. They are a people of lone wanders who range the Yiton mountains, claiming territories and fighting over them as much as possible. Knuckers have found a place in greater society, but their prejudice toward those of their own race even follows them there. The largest knuckers can stand up to 10 feet tall but those who find their way into society tend to average out at 7 to 8 feet tall. They are of reptilian build, colourfully scaled and hunched with thick musculature, with an equally thick tail. Both male and female of the race have long, sharp horns that are used in combat. More intelligent folk have claimed that knuckers are the descendants of ancient dragons, but they do not seem too interested in this idea. A knucker reaches maturity before the end of their first decade and they can live up to eighty years old, though many are killed in confrontations long before then. Kobolds Where the knuckers ranged the mountains above, the kobolds worked the stone below transforming the interiors of the Yiton mountains into vast cities of fabulous wealth and grand design. Unlike the knuckers the kobolds are incredibly proud of their draconic heritage, almost to a fault, and much of their views of themselves and their self worth are wrapped up in this fact. The kobold are a small people, rarely standing above four foot tall. They have draconic features such as sharpened teeth and claws, scales, tails and whisker-like barbels. They are the only people in all of Thele with the anatomy to be able to speak in the only draconic tongue. Kobolds mature by the age of six and can live to be one hundred and twenty years old. Magogs Born of the giants the Magogs are a race of demi-giants that, despite their size and build, are overwhelmingly peaceful. They bear the weight of the broken world on their shoulders, or at least they feel they do, as the reason for the beginning of the war. They feel the weight of their creators and their worship, which manifests as a nomadic lifestyle, circling the Yiton using the stone altars as destinations and guides. Magog stand between seven and eight feet tall and are of incredibly muscular build. They typically have an alabaster hue to their rough skin. They have small eyes contrasted by large, flat noses and mouths. It is not uncommon for them to have a large portion of their body tattooed with magog religious imagery. Magog mature in their mid to late teens and can live up to a century. Wights The wights used to be something different, a race lost to time. But when the flood washed away the rest of Thele this peoples country was taken with it and their mages were only able to save their capital, shielding it from the waves and letting it sink to the bottom of the sea. With starvation rampant not long after the same mages enacted the greatest act of necromancy Thele has ever seen, binding the bloodlines of this people to death, stripping away their flesh and leaving only bones and a soul, removing their mortal desires and leaving only intellect and memory. This binding had an unexpected effect however, as those of bloodlines in the greater world, saved from the flooding by chance were burdened too, each having a chance to be transformed by this magic, along with each generation of their family down the ages. Wights appear to be skeletal humanoids, standing between five and six feet tall. Instead of clothes most instead affix jewellery, plates of metal, or other decoration to depict individuality. Wights do not need to eat, drink, sleep or breath. They have no limit on lifespan when the curse comes into effect, which in landbased Wights typically occurs in the mid to late thirties. A wight can be killed by destroying it's body to in irreparable state.